THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

This article is extracted from ‘Immanuel and His Dominion’, which appeared in Zion’s Watch Tower of December 15, 1905, p. 380. We have standardised the format and omitted some paragraphs, indicated by ellipses.

All Scripture citations are to the King James (Authorised) Version.

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Isaiah 9: 2

AFTER THE HEBREW idiom this statement pertaining to the future reads as though it related to something only in the past, just as in verse 6 we read, ‘unto us a child is born’, whereas Jesus was not born at that time nor until several centuries later.

The standpoint of the shining light is still future; the great light is not yet shining upon the people, they still dwell in the land of the shadow of death.

The shadows of our demoralized, sinful, dying condition affect all of life’s interests for the world of mankind. As the Apostle explains subsequently, ‘The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now’ (Romans 8: 22).

The world is still waiting for this great Light, which the Scriptures promise shall in due time shine forth, the Sun of righteousness with healing in its beams (Malachi 4: 2). . . .

We are still in the time when darkness covers the earth civilized society and gross darkness the people the heathen.

True, there is a measure of light in the world; true, also, that light emanated from our dear Redeemer, His words and His works, and still shines forth from all those who are truly His and whose hearts are illuminated by His promises and His spirit.

But this is not the light of the world scattering all of earth’s darkness and causing all to appreciate the glory of God.

It is merely ‘the light that is in you’, in believers; it is a light of faith, a light of hope . . . . Our Lord’s light shone into a little corner of the world called Palestine, and from His lamp many followers have lighted their lamps. . . .

That the True Light is not now shining, that the Sun of righteousness has not yet arisen with healing in His beams, is fully evidenced by the gross darkness of heathendom and by the lesser darkness of Christendom. In proportion as the true followers of Jesus have kept their lamps trimmed and burning, in that proportion a measure of enlightenment has spread throughout the world. But all this is merely the shining of light in the midst of darkness, and a light at the present time and under present conditions is wholly inadequate to dispel the night and to bring in the glorious day for which the whole creation groans and still waits. . . .

The light, as the Apostle [John] says, has shone into our hearts and that already through faith. If we look from the outward and natural standpoint of affairs, we would be as the remainder of the world. It is in proportion as we close our eyes to the things that are seen, and that we know by faith to be but temporary, and open the eyes of our understandings to the things unseen as yet and which are eternal – only in that proportion does the light by faith shine into our hearts. . . . ‘This is the True Light which [ultimately] lighteth every man that cometh into the world’ (John 1: 9).

The prophecy of this verse goes beyond the living of that time and assures us that the light will shine to those who are in the shadow of death in the deadly shade, properly a title of hades those who are in hades, in darkness. Upon every member of our race the light must shine, because Christ hath redeemed us once for all. As all of Adam’s children were condemned before their birth, so all of them were redeemed, and the majority of them before their birth. They are as sure to get a blessing from Christ’s redemptive work as they surely did share in the curse that came upon Father Adam.

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